A man is claiming that the winner of the largest lottery jackpot in history is not the true winner because he stole the winning ticket from him.
This has prompted Jose Rivera to file sue Edward Castro, who has been declared the winner, along with another man called ‘Reggie’, claiming that they stole the ticket that landed the prize worth $2.04 billion.
The claim
According to Mr. Rivera, he had bought the ticket in Altadena, California from a shop named Joe’s Service Center and the same day, Reggie had stolen it from him.
He said that he had contacted Reggie to get the ticket back, but had not been able to do so. The plaintiff said that Reggie had refused to his request.
Court documents revealed that Reggie had offered to split the winnings instead. As per the rules of the California Lottery, they have to disclose the winner’s name as per the law.
Therefore, they had disclosed that Edwin Castro was the winner who had come forward to claim the jackpot on February 14th.
However, no other information had been provided about the winner. Mr. Castro had also chosen to not make an appearance at a press conference that had been organized and has not spoken to the press.
The winner
Lottery officials disclosed that the winner had been invited to attend the event, but he had turned it down and claimed that he wanted to remain mostly private.
Mr. Castro had prepared a statement that he read out at the event in which he said that he had been ecstatic and shocked about winning the drawing.
He had also said that he was pleased that the lottery company would provide the public schools in the state with revenue.
Mr. Rivera has listed both Reggie and Mr. Castro as two individual defendants in his lawsuit. But, it does not clarify if the two of them knew each other, the nature of their relationship, or what role they played in the alleged theft.
Additional details
Mr. Rivera has also contacted the California Lottery to submit a claim and asked them to investigate the matter and declare him the jackpot’s winner.
An employee at the auto repair shop from where the ticket was bought said that Mr. Rivera had shown up and created a scene. The worker called him ‘crazy’.
A statement was also issued by the California Lottery in which it said that the rightful winner of the jackpot was Edward Castro.
It said that they did not have the authority to investigate any criminal activity involving their players because that is the job of law enforcement.
They added that they would offer assistance if such an investigation is carried out.
